JOHN LINDER: “Mr. Chairman, to begin to address the question of intent, this bill, or the vast majority of this bill, was actually…”

“Mr. Chairman, to begin to address the question of intent, this bill, or the vast majority of this bill, was actually introduced March 15, 2001. It was introduced by me after talking to many people about it because I believe if we want to get rid of soft money, Members ought to do that. Every year since 1995, this body has been offered a version of Shays-Meehan, and in every Congress we have listened to our colleagues take the floor of the House to vilify soft money and all of its evils and ills; yet in all of the various incantations of the Shays-Meehan language that we have seen over the years, we have never seen a version that bans soft money in Federal elections. Let me say that again. In all of the various incantations of the Shays-Meehan language that we have seen over the years, we have never seen a version that bans soft money in Federal elections. Further, in nary a rendition of the Shays-Meehan bill, have the authors banned all soft money immediately. That is right. Yet for the rest of this day and into the night, we are going to hear that this proposal bans soft money. It calls to mind the wonderful line from Alice in Wonderland when one of the character says, ``When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to mean.'' That is what ``ban'' is going to be today.”